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Topic: Have any books made you literally LOL? (Read 3206 times)

The only books that have made me LOL in certain scenes so far have been _Great Expectations_ by Charles D*i*c*kens, _Dead Souls_ by Nikolai Gogol and _Rebellion_ by Joseph Roth. I am currently reading _Decline and Fall_ by Evelyn Waugh and while it is touted by many as one of the funniest novels with a laugh on every page, I've only snickered for a second. How about anyone else?

Now that you mention Jane Austin, I remember having a good laugh at times while reading Pride and Prejudice. I think it was the relationship between Elizabeth's parents that produce the funniest parts in my vague memory.

I just recently re-read the Roman historian Tacitus and found his descriptions of all the actions the emperor Nero tried to kill his mother and failed. A horrible motive, but the way in which the attempts all failed and Nero's reaction is something you would see in a good comedy.

The funniest episode is where Nero had a boat built that would instantly fall apart after some rigging was jarred. Nero told his mother that she needed a rest and should take a sea trip. He took her to Ostia, and waved her good bye. After the boat was out at sea, a servant under Nero's instructions pulled the cord and the boat fell apart. Nero declared his mother dead and started to have a party. His mother survived and swam all the way to shore. Drenched, she bursted in on Nero's dinner party. Nero nearly chocked on his food when he saw her.

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"If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness, we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name. For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say but by what w

depends on what kind of laughing you are talking about - funny laughing or disturbed laughing?

Funny Laughing - I agree, the Hitchhikers series by Douglas Adams.

Disturbed Laughing - Hillary’s big book of lies, ANYTHING by Michael Moore, ANYTHING by Al Frankin - these books because they are just plain LAUGHABLEALSO - Dumbing Down our Kids by Charles Sykes, Original Intent by David Barton because what they talk about is disturbingly amusing.

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"Where I live in Manhattan and where I work at ABC, people say 'conservative' the way people say 'child molester.' Leftist thinking is just the culture that I live in and the culture the reporters who populate the mainstream media

In a book by PJ O'Rourke, he describes a young crack dealer coming home (to his Grandparents house IIRC) and the scene that unfolds as he confronts the officers that had invaded his 'castle'. I remember literally laughing out loud at the minds eye picture that was before me.

Believe it or not, the first third of Moby Dick is wickedly funny, and includes a sharp satire on American Protestantism's tendency toward reductionist/pragmatist thinking.

Some scenes that had me in guffaws:

In ch. 17, Queequeg, the Cannibal, is carrying out his "Ramadan," sitting cross-legged, chanting, in the inn room he shares with the vaguely Protestant (anti-) hero, Ishmael, with the door firmly locked. Outside in the hall, Ishmael is so incensed by the idea of this 'mystical mumbo-jumbo,' that he hurls his body full force against the door, which of course, Queequegs opens just in time to have Ishmael fall into the room (one of the first uses of this prat fall, no doubt).

In the third and fourth chapters, Ishmael winds up having to share a room, and even a bed, with the immense, heavily tatooed cannibal, Queequeq.

And in ch. 10, Ishmael, having just listened to a strangely disembodied, but logical, Calvinist sermon, engages in an apparentlyflawless syllogism that leads inextricably to the conclusion: "ergo, I must turn idolater."

It is a shame how dreadly this book is taught, and misinterpreted, in high school English classes. If you haven't given it a chance, try it again.